Omnia Vincit Amor
by TheNightIsFading
Summary: Ariu Sahren was different all her life. No money, prostitute mother... All in a world very different from our own... But with eerie similarities. Now she is the only one who can save all the worlds. But will she?
1. On the Roof

((Author's Note)) This story does not have that much to do with His Dark Materials, except that it has daemons. Maybe some HDM characters will come into play later, but I'm not sure yet. All the characters in this story (so far) belong entirely to me. The only thing that doesn't belong to me is the idea of daemons.

* * *

**Omnia Vincit Amor**

_"Let us die, and rush into the heart of the night." -Virgil

* * *

_

**Chapter One**

Silently, Ariu crept up the stairs to the highest inside floor of the apartment building in which she lived. Her daemon Aruin, crept beside her. She grabbed the lowest lung of the ladder leading to the roof, and climbed upward. When she reached the trapdoor, she pushed it out with one of her hands. Aruin, in the form of a monkey followed her.

She was not allowed to be on the roof. If anyone found out, her family might be evicted to make room for the other desperate people outside, living in the streets. Ariu moved to the edge of the building on her hands and knees, and stared down.

The height was dizzying, and the crowded streets below held swarms of people , moving likes ants. Ariu had long since decided that they must be ants. Or rats, more like. The lives down on the ground, some forty stories below, heading off in different directions. She hated it.

The suicide rate in the city Ariu lived in, one of the largest in the world, it was said (but she had never been out of it, so who knew?), was staggering. Several people had thrown themselves off of this building in the past few years. So Ariu was not allowed on the top anymore. No one was. That could not prevent her from coming. The city of Gitslent was so overly crowded, that Ariu never got any peace, until she sat on the building, squinting for a glimpse of sky through the thick covering of smog hanging low over the factories on the outskirts of the city.

On very clear days, when the wind blew the smog away for a few minutes, Ariu might catch a glimpse of the ocean, glinting blue. But when she stood in front of the water, it was always grey. She could never seen much beyond the city, which seemed to be formed in a exact circle, immense, but limited. She could see the tall smokestacks of the factories, which made cars and clothes, and everything else the people of Gitslent wanted. What was behind them? Ariu had seen far off hills, and large spaces of grass. Why did people remain in the city, packed in like sardines, when there was obviously so much spare room?

Ariu didn't like to think about it, but she thought that maybe there was something bad outside. Lately she had been hearing rumours of war and terrorism.

Shaking her head to clear it of all her frightening ideas, Ariu stared off into space, waiting for the Voice to come to her. Sometimes It did. Especially after making her wait for long amounts of time.

The girl did not pretend to believe that hearing voices in her head made her normal. But she had never been normal. She was not hooked on drugs or alcohol, and she was still a virgin. That made her very unusual in a city like Gitslent, at her age of 13. Ariu's luma was gone most of the time, working, and Ariu often had no one besides Aruin to speak to.

She had been attending the Talselado Magical Studies College for two years now, and the voice had not spoken to her until she had began her studies. Ariu had a cousin, Jenise, who lived on the other side of the city, and who had attended the College, and graduated just before Ariu began school. Talselado was a very exclusive school, and required elementary education, and a related alumni for exceptance. And, of course, magical ability. Meaning having a daemon.

Ariu was so lost in her thoughts, that she nearly missed the Voice's soft call: "Ariu."

She, as always, stared around, because the Voice sounded as though it came from all directions at once.

"I am not behind you, Ariu. I am within you."

"I must be insane."

"You must." The Voice made no extra sound, but it seemed to be smiling in mocking fashion. Ariu scowled slightly, knowing this, but not understadning at all how she did, or why she was not afraid of this voice within her head. The one that her daemon could not hear. "Why else would you sit still for nearly an hour to hear me say something? What do you think I have to say to you?"

Ariu stared at one of the tall buildings across the street, not knowing where to look for the Voice. "You must have somthing to say, else you wouldn't always talk to me."

"I don't always talk to you, child. Oh but sometimes it is amusing to see you squirm. I know you, Ariu, and what you want is a question," the disembodied voice in her head whispered.

"Will you permit it?" Ariu asked back, not realising that she and the Voice were speaking in their heads, and the Aruin, her daemon was pacing back and forth in the form of a fox, agitated. He did not trust the Voice he had never heard, and worried sometimes, that Ariu would go insane.

The Voice said nothing, so finally Ariu pointed across the city, off into the smoggy distance. "What is out there? Past the factories, and all the buildings and people, and past the hills? Is it the end of the world?"

"I can see why you are still in school at your age. You know fully that there is not an end of the world. It continues. A globe."

"Well, then! What is out there?"

The mysterious, sexless voice whispered, "Freedom..."

"Freedom?" Ariu asked out loud. "How do you mean?"

The Voice seemed upset, as it replied, "Mea culpa. Lapsus linguae."

"Pardon?"

The Voice did not answer. It was gone.

Ariu stood up slowly, rubbing her sleeping legs, and looking at Aruin.

"Come on, my darling. Let's see of anyone is at the wharf."

The daemon stared at her expressionlessly, and followed her back inside the building.

In the shadows inside the building, at the back of the room containing the ladder to the roof, a small figure hid, watching silently. When her sister and her daemon had passed, the little girl slid away from her hiding place in the corner. Grasping her cat daemon under one arm, she climbed slowly up the ladder.

Lucy was only seven-years-old, but she thought that if Ariu could go onto the roof, so could she. She had done it before. Gone up, and stood on the very edge of the roof, where the railings had long ago falled off. Her toes hanging off the edge, she felt strong and powerful.

No one knew. Ariu was not careful about her sneaking. But Lucy was small, and unnoticeable. She would not go inside if she could help it, finding it much more fun to lurk in the streets nearby, playing with the homeless little children. But Penny Sahren (sa-rain), Lucy's luma(mother), was very stern about not allowing Lucy out on the street alone.

Lucy knew what her luma did. But she didn't hate Penny, as Ariu did. Lucy knew that her mother made babies with men for money, but she understood that their mother was not smart, and had not gone to school, and could not do anything else. Lucy found it entertaining to play with the street urchins, but be one? No thank you very much!

Lucy stood at the edge of the roof, silently, her daemon Harlem poised behind her, now in the form of an eagle. Free. She was free. Standing on the roof, nearly falling off, and knowing how close she was to death, Lucy tried to avoid thinking about her luma's jobs, and how Ariu reacted to Penny, and how it all affected her. Her pale blond hair, so light it was almost white, but darker, because of the pollution, flowed out in the wind behind her. She stared off into the impossible distance, past the hills, where she had never gone, but where she would go someday. Her pale blue eyes focused on nothing.

Sometimes, when her luma was working, and locked her daughters out of their tiny apartment, and Ariu had disapeared furiously to one of her friend's houses, or wherever she went to, Lucy would stand like this, ready to fly, arms outstretched, for hours.

Ariu reached the apartment, and unlocked it one of the keys she carried on her neck. There were two others, but she could not remember getting them or ever not having them. One the others she had was silver, one was gold. Even when she and Lucy went without food for days, Ariu never contemplated selling them. And Penny either was not aware of their existence, or had forgotten about them, for she never mentioned them.

Inside the apartment, Ariu stared around. It contained five rooms: A kitchen, two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a living room. The kitchen was small and cramped, and the water barely trinkled a leady, brown sludge. The rest of the kitchen was empty. Ariu would have to stop at the market and filch something for Lucy to eat for supper. Still, the fact that they lived indoors automatically made them better off than most of the people in Gitslent. Ariu glared at the door to her luma's bedroom. Penny was out on a job, whoring herself out, just the way she always had been.

Lucy's idea that Ariu did not understand that Penny was stupid was not innacurate. It was simply...incomplete. Ariu, if she had written every reason she detested her mother on paper, could have filled a book. She had written a few of her reasons for hating her mother in her journal a while ago:

Dear Journal:

For your pleasure, and my later pleasure in reading this, here is a list of why I absolutely hate my luma.

1. She is a prostitute. She has a bougeois family, but we live in one of the poorest sections of town, and she sells herself for almost nothing.

2. She wants Lucy to end up like her. Another destitute whore. I can see it in her ugly eyes. She knows I am in school; I will become somebody. But Lucy can not go to Magic School until I graduate, and until then... Everyone says that Lucy looks like an angel, and she does. We obviously have different fathers.

3. She can't keep her business private. I hate it! She advertises her "services" to the world proudly. I hate the association.

4. She doesn't know who my father is. She probably slept with a couple of hundred men in that same week, so that's reasonable. But it's her fault, so I hate her for it.

Ariu could never forgive her luma. When she had begun school, only a few years younger than Lucy now, the teacher had asked the class what they're parents did. There were the normal doctors, and lawyers, and mechanics. And a prostitute.

Through her entire childhood, Ariu had only two true friends, Aruin, and Aaliyah. It was her luma's fault.

Sighing, Ariu shook out her hateful thoughts. There was no point in thinking them since Penny could not care less what her children thought.

"Lucy," Ariu said. She walked into the bedroom that the two girls shared, and could not find her sister. "Lucy?" The little girl was nowhere to be seen. "Oh no..." Ariu and Aruin said at once.

"I might have to start padlocking her in here again," Ariu sighed. "Gods!"

"Hopefully she's not outside," Aruin said. "But she might have seen us go onto the roof."

Ariu gasped, and ran out into the hallway. They lived on the 31st story of the building, where the elevators rarely worked. She pounded up the steps, but she wasused to it, and was hardly panting when she reached the top, and threw herself up the ladder, and out through the trapdoor, which was already open.

"Lucy!" Ariu exclaimed, seeing her little sister balanced on the precipice. "Get back from there!"

Lucy did not react for several seconds, and Ariu was scared to move, because she might startle Lucy and make her fall. Finally, the beautiful child turned around, and stared at her sister. She didn't say anything, which, to Ariu was frightening. Lucy looked dead.

"Lucy?"

The small girl narrowed her eyes. "You are not supposed to be up here," she said.

"Neither are you!" Ariu said, walking forward and grasping her sister by the arm. "And I am older."

"Age doesn't matter," Lucy scoffed. Her voice was hard and cold.

Ariu stopped. "What are you talking about?" she whispered. "Lucy?"

The girl stared at her silently, then shook off Ariu's arm and disapeared into the building.

"What did she mean?" Aruin asked Ariu when they were alone.

Ariu could only shake her head. She did not know. But she could guess that it had something to do with her luma, Penny.

"You'll stay here, right?" Ariu asked, but Lucy didn't answer. They were standing in the doorway of Penny's room. "You won't leave?" Lucy said nothing, but walked to the bed, and sat down, staring out the window.

Finally she whispered, "You're being mean. I'm not talking to you."

Ariu rolled her eyes. "What, Luce?"

"You're leaving me here all alone! Why can't I go with you?"

Ariu walked over and stood next to the bed. She would never sit on it, of course. "Lucy, I would take you with me; I don't want to leave you alone here, but when you're with me, it's harder to steal something."

Lucy's eyes widened. "Penny says you're not sposed to steal!"

The older girl smiled sadly. "I don't want to steal. But if I don't, you'll starve."

"I'd rather starve than steal!" Lucy exclaimed vehemently.

So would I, thought Ariu.

Lucy thought, as Ariu left, that it was her fault that her sister had to steal; that if she was older, Ariu could leave. She had promised that as soon as she had turned 16, and could live on her own, she would sue Penny for custody of Lucy, but Lucy didn't want to live with Ariu. She would ruin Ariu's life, for sure! She was a bad little girl. Penny always said that. Ariu was the one who had a good future ahead of her. Lucy was dumb, and not worth stealing for.

She scooted over to the edge of the bed near the window, and stared down, close to tears. She had not truely cried in all the time that she remembered, but sometimes she wished she could. She was not sad for herself, because she thought she was too young to deserve pity. She was upset for her older sister. Ariu wanted to leave. Lucy was young, but she could tell that if she wasn't there, Ariu would have run away long ago.

Lucy knew a secret about Ariu. She had been hiding in Penny's closet, while her luma spoke on the telephone to a man. Lucy could tell it was a man, because Penny spoke different to men, and because the man seemed to be yelling into the phone. Lucy still remembered most of the converstation:

Penny: I don't care! I don't!

Man: My wife would never understand.

Penny: Ariu has nothing to do with your wife! Just let her go see you!

Man: I will do nothing of the sort! I've never even met the girl!

(long pause)

Penny: Then perhaps my memory is failing me, sir. Because I was sure that you were present at her birth. And that you chose her name.

Man: Rolayna has forgotten about her.

Penny: How could she? How could anyone ever forget that their husband is in love with another woman?

Man: I am not in love with you, Taineese. You lost my love when you became a prostitute.

Penny: You stole my name, and my soul, and banished me. My whole family probably thinks I'm dead! What choice did I have? I lived in the Court! I have no skills.

Man: Of course you did. But you might not any longer.

Penny: That's right! I seduced the king! What else could I do? Answer that? Do not blame me for trying to protect my family. The only people I have left in the world!

Man: She is not coming back here.

Penny: She must! She will die here! She is a princess, and she--

Man: No! Your daughter is no princess. There's no telling who her father is!

Penny: HOW DARE YOU!? You took my virginity, and accuse me of sleeping around? I pity your kingdom, ruled by such an inane person!

Man: Be silent, Taineese.

Penny: You kept the name Taineese. It is not mine. My name is Penny now. You are not my king. I shall send Ariu to you. I might send Lucy as well.

Man: Send her then. I'll only lock her in the dungeons. And I won't have a little street child running about!

Penny: She is your prodgeny.

Man: I have others. Rolayna would never let me keep your children, even as servants.

Penny: (screams, and throws the phone into the wall) Asshole!

This was the secret Lucy knew about her sister. Ariu was a princess. But Lucy wouldn't tell her. It was selfish, but Lucy knew that Ariu would leave her then. They had different fathers, so they weren't true sisters. As much as Lucy wanted Ariu to be happy, she didn't want her to be happy without her.

Lucy knew what royalty was. It meant that Ariu was one of the people who could live in giant palaces in the middle of cities and order everyone around without ever seeing any of their subjects. She knew what a princess was, and had always thought her sister looked like a princess, even before hearing her mother's early morning phone call last autumn. Ariu always had perfect posture, and poise, and confidence. She had long dark brown hair that waved slightly at the ends. Her eyes were dark blue, like the sky right before it goes black. She hated it when she wasn't right, and hated it even more if someone didnt go along with what she said.

Lucy believed that her sister was a princess. Ariu obviously didn't. She thought she was plain looking, she smoked, hung around with the street children, and disobeyed every rule. But Ariu always took care of Lucy.


	2. The Wharf

Please review!

* * *

Chapter Two 

At the wharf, Aruin turned into a green snake, and draped himself around Ariu's neck, as she walked around. The water was ugly down here. The inner city was ugly. The boats in the harbor were old, with peeling paint, or ripped sails. Shouts from the market a few streets over reached Ariu's ears. she heard the old woman shrieking, advertising their wares, to the people, most of whom would rather just go inside a store. Anyone who could afford it avoided the market like the plague. It was full of panhandlers and prostitutes, and all sorts of unpleasant persons.

Ariu hung around the docks for awhile, watching the boats floating on the water, dreaming about being a sailor, and floating away. She stayed until the sun's heat became unpleasantly warm. Then she walked back into the shadows below the tall buildings craning their necks into the sky.

Eventually, she saw a group of children she knew. They were mostly kids living on the streets, orphaned. Ariu had ran the streets with them when she was younger, but now that she was older, and attended school, while most of them couldn't even read, she tended to seek out the company of her friends from school. As much as she liked the girls she attended school with (Aaliyah and Ryanna were her best friends), there were some things that they could not understand. Especially Ryanna, who had grown up knowing her whole family, and living in a large house in the nicer, safer section of Gitslent. Once in a while, Ariu found the group of children she had known her whole life. She was smarter than them, and she knew it, but she was also their leader, so she did not have to hide her intelligence as much as she did with anyone else.

As Ariu approached the children, who all looked similar; the boys and the girls covered in dirt, with chopped haircuts, she raised her hand in greeting. The group was interchanging; children disapeared all of the time, and no one noticed, so why should they? And new children appeared often. The only rule was that you didn't tell any adult that sometimes they smoked cigarettes and joints and drank alcohol. Any child was welcome as long as they weren't too pathetic or horrible.

"Ariu," one girl said. Her name was Junie, and she was probably around the same age as Ariu, although she didn't know. She lived with her older brother, in back alleys, with no steady home, because her brother spent most of his time doing drugs and buying prostitutes, but Junie was perpetually happy. "Long time no see."

Ariu said nothing. She simply joined the group and nodded at the people who called out her name.

A boy named Jondor, who was taller than her, and hated her for some inexplicable reason shook his head. "Well," he said. "I'm surprised anyone remembers you!"

Ariu frowned and ignored his comment. Someone handed her a lit cigarette, and she put it in her mouth. "Thank you." She never inhaled, but let the smoke hang around her mouth, then fall out eventually. She saw what happened to people who smoked too often; it ruined thier voices. Ariu wanted to become a famous singer someday, so she tried to take good care of her voice. She drank a lot of water. It wasn't likely that she would achieve the sort of fame that would let her travel all over the world, touring, throwing celebrity parties, and having her music videos on TV. She had yet to see a famous singer with a daemon. Sometimes she resented the fact that she had magical powers, but if she didn't she would not have Aruin. And she would not give her daemon up for anything. She could not give him up. If she ever moved too far away from him, the pain coming from her heart and her soul overpowered her.

It was much more likely that Ariu would end up doing something with her magic when she was grown, never leaving Gitslent. Only people with special privledges were allowed to leave the cities they were born in. This included the monarchs, celebrities, magicians, and people who got permission from the queen or king whereever they lived. If people were allowed to freely come and go between cities, chaos would ensue. They had been allowed to come and go as they wished in the past, and the world have been overrun by cars and airplanes and war and pollution. Now technological devices were rarer, but the rich people still liked to flaunt their money by purchasing cars, and passes between cities. The police would never check a person in a car, anyway. They didn't need permission to leave, really. It was a system to keep the poor people from ever leaving, because they would overrun the world again.

Ariu only knew two people from Gitslent who had left. One was her friend Ryanna, who had family all over, and an immediate family with two cars. Every summer, her family left to visit relatives. The other person was her luma, Penny Sahren. Penny came from another kingdom entirely. Penny would not say much about her past, or why she had left. She had been banished many years ago, and could never go back. Her passport had words on it that said she could not leave Gitslent. She refused to say more, and started crying the time Ariu inquired about it. The daughter had never spoken much to her mother, but since she had begun to call her luma rather than mother, they tended to avoid each other.

"Luma" meant mother. It was the name for the High Goddess, and anyone who might be a mother. It was the word children called their grandmothers, or any elderly lady. Or any related woman who was older. It could also mean woman. Generally children did not call thier own mother's luma; it was impersonal, and a bit rude. But Ariu called Penny luma, so Lucy did as well. Penny did not say anything. She would rather have her daughters call her luma than Penny. And she knew she wasn't much of a mother.

Ariu was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice the way the children's conversation had turned until someone said the word magicians, until everyone stared at her.

"What?" she asked quietly, her mouth forming a surprised O.

"Is it true?" a small girl named Clare asked. "Is it true that only magicians can resist the Sickness?"

Ariu immediately knew what Clare was refering to. For the past year, a mysterious illness had been travelling across the world. It had originated from the high north, and only struck adults. No adults with the Sickness ever lived for more than a few days. It was transmitted through the air, and through any body fluid. It was not spreading very rapidly, because all of the cities where it had struck were locked. No one who was not related to the royal family could leave. So all adults in those cities, millions of people over the age of 18 had died. This left all of the children behind, with no way to get food.

Magicians went to the deserted cities, and tried to gather up all of the orphans who hadn't been killed by the cannibal children. The wizards and witches could resist the disease enough to not catch it through the air, but coming into contact with an infected body would kill them. Ariu had heard in school that there were so many people dead, because of the wizards. And many magicians were dying. When they left one city and moved to the next, they spread the disease. Lately, not many people were attempting to rescue the children.

Ariu started to nod, then realized that it wasn't true. "No. Any person with a daemon is harder to infect." Ariu had never thought about it that way. Only people with daemons were accepted into magic school, but they still taught magic from the very beginning. Shouldn't people with daemons, who naturally had magic not need to learn things like how tap into their magic ability? And if she herself naturally had magical powers from Aruin, shouldn't anyone who had a daemon be able to do magic? Especially because she had been able to do small amounts of magic before attending school, when they told her she would learn so much, only now she couldn't even bend a spoon. A chill ran through her body. She knew she had realized something, but she wasn't sure what it really was, or if it was important. She shook off the feeling that she had discovered a conspiracy.

All eyes landed on Aruin. Aruin flicked his tongue at them.

"That's not true!" Junie exclaimed.

"Of course it is," said Ariu calmly. What could Junie know about daemons? She didn't have one! Junie looked frusterated, but didn't continue. Ariu remembered that Junie's brother had a daemon, and said, "What do you mean?"

"My brother caught the Sickness, when he escaped from Gitslent, and went to Helmeso. They summoned me to the hospital where they've got him. It's not actually so far. Only a couple hours of driving. Anyway, Gordon was there, in the hospital, but Leslie wasn't. They said when a person with a daemon catches the sickness, their daemon disappears, and the person is left without a daemon. That person becomes only a half person. They act kinda like a ghost or something. My brother was crying for Leslie. I'd never seen him cry afore. Then they took me home, and dropped me off outside the city. I had to walk to my aunt's house. She hates me too," Junie explained.

Ariu stared, open-mouthed at Junie. That couldn't be true, could it? But Junie didn't lie. Why hadn't her school told anyone that, before asking if any of the graduates wanted to work as a reliefer?

Clare laughed. "So now they're all like everyone else? I don't see why they should act so differently because they don't have a little talking animal with them."

At the same time, Ariu, Jondor, and Junie glared at her and said, "You don't understand!"

Junie clarified, "I think Gordon's daemon was a part of him. When she was gone, it was like he really wasn't a real person. Like Leslie was his soul." Clare raised her eyebrows.

Ariu continued, "If you're too thick to get that, Clare, think of it as though it's your identical twin, only you can share thoughts, and it's the one person who understands you completely, and the one person you can say anything to at all. They've been at you side you entire life. Then one day, they're gone."

Clare looked down at the ground, a bit ashamed.

"Imagine that you have your arms one day, and the next, you wake up, and they're gone completely. And you don't know where to find them, or how to manage, because they've always been there. That must be what losing a daemon is like," Jondor said. His daemon was curled in his arms as a small dog.

Ariu looked down, and realized she was clenching Aruin in the form of a large cat. She noticed the irony of it. Even when agreeing, she and Jondor were opposites.

The topic of conversation changed, and Ariu soon excused herself to go get something for dinner.

She heading out of the marketplace, carrying two small cakes, and several apples, when it it her.

Gordon had been in Helmeso. The closest city to Gitslent. The Sickness was right around the corner. She stopped dead, filled with dread, and wondered if she should tell Penny. It was contracted through all body fluids. And her luma came into contact with quite a lot of them.

Finally, Ariu let out a long breath, and began to walk toward the building she lived in. There was nothing she could do about it.

As they walked, Aruin said, "They want something from us."

Ariu looked at him. "Who?"

He shook his head. "Whoever it is that decided that all people with daemons have magic, but ONLY if they attend magic school."

"We had magic before we went to school," Ariu said quietly, suddenly terrified that someone was listening over her shoulder.

"I know! They (I'm assuming they is the government), don't want people with daemons to have magic. So they tell them they need a special education. And people believe that!"

"But why don't they want anyone to have magic?" Ariu asked.

"Because," her daemon replied, "if a portion of the population of each city has people with magic, who aren't taught all the rules and consequences, they might overthrow the king or queen's rule. So they let a few people into school."

"Well then, why teach anyone magic?"

"They want something from us," Aruin said somberly.

Ariu drew in a breath slowly. "Oh. I don't trust royalty-type people. They want the whole world to bend to their will, and we have to. Because they want us to worship them like we honor the Goddesses."

They were approaching their block. Ariu hurried her step, and the cougar-formed Aruin walked beside her. She had long ago realized that it was better to have Aruin in a big form this late, when the sun would be setting if the day were clearer. But lately, the sun would just suddenly be gone between one minute and the next.

"So what do we do about it?" Ariu asked.

"About what?"

"You know. Everything."

"Nothing. What can we do?"

Ariu sighed. "We can't just do--"

They rounded the corner, and stood staring, wide-eyed, open-mouthed at the building they had lived in their whole lives. Ariu broke into a sprint, and made it several steps, before collapsing on the ground, sobbing, staring up, up, up. All the way up to the 31st floor. She had to see her apartment. But she couldn't it was too far away, or the air was too grey.

She stood up and moved again forward, and promptly fainted from shock.

* * *

Thanks. 


	3. Lucy in the Sky

Omnia Vincit Amor

Chapter 3

Lucy folded her legs under her body, and stared outside. The room was beginning to get slightly darker, so Ariu would be home soon. She could not get out of her luma's bedroom, because Ariu had locked her and Harlem in.

Lucy looked down. The air was smokier than usual, and it was very hot. She sighed, as she had done at least ten times in the last sixty seconds. She had already yelled for someone to come let her out. There were no other neighbors on their floor, but in this neighborhood, most people just stayed out of other people's business.

The window was open, but no fresh air was coming in. Harlem was in the form of a large bird, attempting to fan her. "I'm going to get Ariu for this one!" she told her daemon. The air tasted bad, and she had to speak louder to be heard over the loud sirens outside. She had been hearing them for a while, but she could only see they flashing lights reflecting off a neighboring building. It was very infuriating. She was hungry, and upset, and scared, and thirsty, and near to throwing a temper tantrum. "I'll tell Luma she locked us in!"

Harlem looked down at her. "She'll figure out some way to make us not tell. She always does."

"Yes. That's because Ariu's a witch. She goes to school for it." Lucy wrinkled her nose. "I can do magic already. And I don't need some growm-up telling me how to!"

"Really?" Harlem asked. "Then get us out of here!"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "You can quit fanning. It's really no use." She coughed, and then found that she couldn't stop coughing. Harlem looked around anxiously for water, but there was none to be found in the infinitesimal room. Dust fell from the ceiling gently. Like snow. It was even the grey colour of snow.

She stood up from the bed, and looked into the mirror. She was surprised that her hair looked like an old woman's. It was all dry, and grey, and powdery. Her clothes were covered with something that looked like ash. It was enough to make any normal little girl cry. Luckily Lucy never cried. She hadn't cried last year when she had broken her arm. If she cried now, Ariu might walk in and see. No sir! She was not going to get that satisfaction after leaving Lucy alone all day. Ariu was always trying to make Lucy cry, but it never worked. Ariu cried very frequently, and mostly over nothing important. Like if she had a fight with one of her friends, or failed a test, or was angry at Penny, or wanted to see her father, or wanted to leave Gitslent. Jeez, did she have a million reasons to cry or what? Lucy had just as many things that she could cry about, but she never did! Why should she? Who else would be upset if she cried. Only she would. And why make herself more upset? There was no sense in having any bad emotion at all.

"What's happening, Har?" the little girl asked, as he flipped through a series of increasingly bigger and more protective animals. He shook his head. He knew no more than she did. Both of them knew that something bad was going on outside. "Ariu?!" she yelled. "Mama!" No one answered her calls, and the black stuff was floating near the ceiling. "I don't like it Harlem..."

The wolf-shaped daemon snarled. "I don't either. But we can't do anything. We can't climb out of the window: it's too small. And we're locked in this room."

"Why did she lock us in?" Lucy exclaimed. "What is wrong with her? Now that she goes to magic school, she's too good to do anything with me. She just locks us in here! She never plays with us anymore!" In the corner of her mind, Lucy was certain that she was going to die. Maybe it was because she was keeping secrets. Maybe she wasn't being good to the Goddesses. Or maybe it was the sins of the entire city.

Lucy launched into another coughing fit, her eyes burning severely. She didn't know what was going on, but she wasn't going to stay to find out.

She dropped to the floor, underneath the cloud of what she recognized as smoke, but could not comprehend, wheezing as she crawled to the closet. Ariu's words rang through her ears, as though the older girl was in the room with her.

"If anything ever happens, don't you dare forget to take Luma's money jar. And take the family pictures. Give them both to me, or keep them to yourself if anything happens to me. Okay? Money will help us get a new job, or at least keep us fed, and pictures are like memories, only better, You wouldn't want to lose your memories, would you?"

Lucy grasped the jar and the box, and tucked one under each arm, and scooted back toward the door. Her head ached, but she could still hear her sister's voice in her head. "Lucy, in an emergency, the only person you need to save is you. Don't think about Luma or me. Just save yourself..." Ariu could be greedy, and pretentious, and stuck-up, and was always concerned with the money that Penny had saved up over all of the years. It was thousands of dollars, sent from someone from Penny's past. Penny refused to spend it, and just placed it in a jar. Although Ariu reminded Lucy to get it in an emergency often, she had never taken any of it. Lucy didn't know why. All Ariu would say on that subject was, "With Penny as our mother, we will undoubtedly have to use it someday. But I don't want that day to be very soon. So I'll hold off as long as I can."

"Why? Why don't you want to use the money?"

"Because you're more important than buying a CD I want, or going to the cinema."

That explained nothing.

Harlem became a rhinoceros, and butted the door open easily. Briefly, the girl wondered why they hadn't thought of that before. Lucy clung to her daemon as he went up the stairs. She had to pull herself up the ladder onto the roof, and she slipped off several times. The air quality was not much better on the roof, but as Lucy moved over to the edge of the roof she normally stood at, she found that the wind was blowing all of the smoke away from her. She could breath at least, although the heat was getting to be unbearable, especially on the concrete of the roof. She could see heat waves rising up. Obviously something was on fire. She stood on the edge of the roof, and stared down. It looked like the whole building was on fire.

Turning to her daemon, Lucy said, "This is it, then. I'll really never get out of this city." Then she pitched backward over the edge of the roof. With a howl, Harlem dragged her back up before he too passed out.

On the ground, Ariu had just come to, when a gasp went through the people crowded around the outside of her building. A firefighter was offering her water, and her hands were trembling, as she looked up. She saw her sister hanging over the edge! She screamed, and passed out again, spilling water all over her top.

Ariu was awake when the firefighter ran out of the building carrying the little girl. Lucy was hardly conscious, and looked more like a burnt animal than a human. Still, Ariu ran over, sobbing. "Oh Lucy!" she cried. "Oh Lucy! I'm so sorry!"

The girl smiled slightly, her blue eyes crinkling. "It wasn't your fault. If I was a better sister, this wouldn't have happened."

With that, the firefighter carried her off to the ambulance, leaving the jar and box with Ariu. Lucy comment just about broke Ariu's heart! Here she was, trying to keep her sister safe, by locking her in a burning building! What would Penny say when she found out? Ariu no longer cared. For now she had to get in that ambulance and ride to the hospital, and hope her sister would be okay. Then, she had to find some place for them to stay, with or without their mother, depending on if Penny even cared. Maybe she would see the burnt building and decide that this was her opportunity to leave. Ariu was disgusted because she could imagine her luma doing just that.

But she was also a bit upset at herself, for hoping that her mother might have been in the building, and maybe wouldn't come back.

Ariu sat in the hospital waiting room for a long time, with her daemon on her lap. At first she found it hard to stop crying. The nurse caring for Lucy said that the little girl would live, but Ariu was imagining the awful scars Lucy might have. And it was all her fault! What would possess her to lock her sister in a room in such an old building? Anything could have happened.

Then she began to think about how much the hospital stay and treatment would cost. It had to be expensive, because the only other people she saw in the hospital were rich people with their chauffeurs or servants there for plastic surgery or some minor sickness. These people looked at her with pity, but Ariu knew how they saw her. Doubly odd. She had a daemon, and lived in the slums of the inner city. There was no avoiding the glances they gave her. She knew that people of her class weren't supposed to seek help for injury. There were supposed to gracefully die, to spare the eyes of the bourgeoisie.

After several hours, a doctor walked out into the waiting room, wiping his hands on his white coat. "Ariu Sahren?" he called, reading off a clipboard hung from the nurses' station.

Ariu stood up, suddenly very nervous, ignoring the fact that he had entirely butchered her name. "Yes?"

The doctor looked at her warily, most likely wondering who was going to pay for Lucy's medicine. "You're Lucy's sister, correct?"

"Yes, I am. Is she going to be okay?" Ariu demanded, fighting to keep her voice under control.

"Oh yes. She'll be fine. Her burns were all superficial, and she didn't even have very much of those. She was mostly suffering from smoke inhalation. One of our mages treated her, and put her to sleep for the night. By morning, she should be perfectly well."

"So," Ariu said quietly, staring at the man's chest to avoid looking in his eyes. "I can pick her up in the morning then?"

"Yes."

"All right."

The doctor turned to leave. "Dr. Enring?" Ariu said, remembering the name tag clipped to the man's chest.

He turned. "Yes, Miss Sahren?"

"Is there a phone anywhere I can use?"

He directed her to the nurse's station, making a phone signal with his hand to one of the nurses.

The woman smiled gently at Ariu as she pointed toward the phone. "Dial 4 before the number," she said.

Ariu nodded, a bit enraged. They had given Lucy a mage! She had not asked for a magician, nor did she want one. Before she dialed, she set the money jar Lucy had handed her on the counter, and told herself to calm down. She ought to have been grateful that a mage had treated Lucy. Ariu herself was in training to become a mage, and had been in magic school enough to know that magic was much better at curing illness than a doctor. She would have been perfectly happy, had she not known that the hospital had not let a mage heal Lucy for the sake of her health, but because it was cheaper, since most people did not trust mages, and would not allow themselves to be healed by them. They had not thought she could pay for her sister's treatment!

Well, it was true that she herself had almost no money, and nothing of value to trade. She could have found a way, though. Or perhaps Penny could have…No, thought Ariu. Her mother would probably never come back. Hopefully.


End file.
